Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Patent Pending: The Toolbox

Everyone knows animal crackers--those fun little cookies shaped like various circus animals that come in a box designed to look like a circus cart. A snack manufacturer could make a successful new product by attempting variants on the animal cracker theme. Picture this: the "toolbox," an exciting assortment of small cookies shaped like various common tools (hammer, drill, hard hat etc.) and sold in a paper box designed to resemble a generic toolbox (or tool belt, for that matter).

Animal crackers provided young kids with a great opportunity to learn names of animals while having fun and consuming calories. If the US government can't get past its institutional sclerosis on issues ranging from climate change to inequality, teaching kids about hand tools can't start soon enough.